I have the same problem. what I did wrong was once I had to download anti-virus program at; ftp.kaspersky.com/utils/getsysteminfo/GetSystemInfo.exeand a box poped up
asking which program I wished it to run with. I chose Firefox and as soon
as I associated it, all my .exe file associations were altered.

How can I change .exe associations back to originals.For example how can I associate quickbooks file (QBW32.exe) with what?Thanks,Lewis

I've got the same problem except every .exe file opens windows media player. I can find where to change other associations but not where to change associations for the .exe files. any help would be appreciated

Ok, this has really got me frustrated. I just brought home a brand new computer and was re-loading software. It seems the culprit here is a download manager from Intuit (Quickbooks). Anyway, I'm looking up at the post above (by the way, I'm on Visa - Ultimate) and I restarted in safe mode, got to the registry, and I think I need a little more help.

Question 1: I do not see ...\.exe\PersistenHandler, should this be there or should I use one of the above items?Question 2: I don't do much registry editing, so what do you mean by "place these entries there"?

I see two locations where the 'iexplore.exe' is mentioned. They are at:

--OpenWithList, at a string called "a", and in the "Value Data" field it says: "iexplore.exe" (without the quotes)

--UserChoice, at a string called "Progid", and in the "Value Data" field it says: "Applications\iexplore.exe" (without the quotes)

I'm not sure what to do here but it seems like you know what you're doing so if you could provide a little more detail for me that would be fantastic.

Here is what I did and it works for me in Windows Vista Business and it works for me.

Question 1: You can add a key there and then add a value (@) in that key using expandable string.

Right Click the Right Window, choose key, type "PersistentHandler", then highlight the new key by left click it on the left panel, then right click right window, choose expandable string, then enter "{098f2470-11cd-b579-08002b30bfeb}" for the value and change the name to "@".

Ditto on the Intuit thing. Why in the world would it not know to open an exe normally and instead ask us what we want to open it with.. and on top of that, set all exes to open with the selected program.. totally crappy....

Thanks for the solution! I just ran into this problem yesterday evening...Yes it was due to a quickbooks download onto Vista. I lost a day of business dealing with this problem. Thanks for the help and the knowledge that I wasnt alone.

All you people who got misled on the Quickbooks Pro 2007 downloader that associates .exe files with something else, this is the easiest fix. If you, Jimmy, are jtbworld - thank you, thank you, thank you.

My ".exe" files were associated with IE. It did this with an Active X download manager. This is a ridiculous problem that Microsoft needs to fix, BTW!

There may be an easier way, but here's how I did it with Vista Business.

Started the OS in safe mode.

Using another PC, I downloaded the ".reg" files from JTB World to a USB memory stick.

In safe mode, I went to the start menu and found "cmd.exe", right-clicked and from the context menu, Properties, Open File Location. Using right-click, I copied the file from that location and pasted it to the desktop, then I renamed the extension to ".com" so it would run.

Once I had the Command window open, I plugged in the memory stick and navigated to the drive, where I was able to run the reg files.

This was a potential nightmare so I hope others can use this information! Thanks again.

1) Right clicked on the Quickbooks Desktop icon and selected properties

2) Looked under the compatablity tab and checked off Run this program in compatibility mode for WINDOWS 98 / WINDOWS ME

This is contrary to what was written on the Quickbooks (Inuit) website. They asked to select Windows XP (Service Pack 2) -- this actually dissociates the .qpg files and Windows vista won't display the navigation pages within the program.

None of my EXE files execute...box says no file association exists for this type of file. Apps will execute if I click on a created file (eg., a DOC file will open MS WORD which otherwise can't be opened directly or with a shortcut). Any suggestions?

Even though this is an old link it fixed my problem in 30 seconds. My files lost their "path" and would not open without me directing them to the location. The problem occurred after my Anti-virus removed a Trojan.

quick temp fix if you really need to open an app: right click the exe or lnk icon and select "open with" then navigate to the correct exe! E.G. trying to open word: right click the icon, select open with and then browse to the word.exe
file in "program files\microsoft office .....

I like to associate the "Open With" options on files with specific options.

For *.txt files I like to have 'cmd.exe' as an option, then I can simply right click a *.txt file in a directory and open a DOS window within that directory.

Couldn't get this to work in Windows 7, and if I used the "open with" option then browsed to 'cmd.exe' and selected it - but clearing the "Always use the selected program to open this kind of file" checkbox to assure a permanent mapping would not occur -
Windows 7 STILL set 'cmd.exe' as the default program.

I stumbled upon the fact that Windows added a "UserChoice" key to the registry under "txtfile" when I did this - thus 'cmd.exe' became the default for all "txtfile" files. This is not what I intended.

Looking for solutions on-line I stumbled on your use of '.com". Put a copy of cmd.exe in another directory, changed the type to ".com" and associated via "open with" . . . browsed to it, cleared the "Always use . . ." check box and it workes !!!

My default is Nottepad for *.txt files but I can right click and use "cmd.com" to open a DOS windor in that directory WITHOUT changing the default file association.

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